The Hindu Business Line : Petrol price hike: Aiyar to meet Left parties today

THE proposal to raise petroleum prices will be taken up with the Left parties on Monday, the Petroleum, Natural Gas & Panchayat Raj Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said here.

He observed that early decisions were needed in the issue in the light of rising international prices and he would try to bring about a consensus on the hike.

The Left has been stalling any increase in the domestic petroleum prices. The move has been discussed with the Finance Minister and the UPA coalition partners and if necessary, will be placed before the Cabinet, according to Mr Aiyar.

He was addressing a news conference in Bangalore after a two-day tour of select district and village panchayats in the State.

Reiterating his earlier stand on the Mangalore SEZ, Mr Aiyar said there was no issue about the zone itself; his intention was however, to involve more oil PSUs as partners in the project rather than have ONGC alone investing Rs 25,000 crore in it.

Mr Aiyar said his Ministry would continue to pursue the devolution of Central funds to panchayats through block grants. One proposal was to set up a Panchayat Empowerment Incentive Fund to the order of Rs 500 crore a year to enable the panchayats take up development projects.

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